Essendon coach John Worsfold says his side’s inconsistent start to the season is a result of its efforts to avoiding stalling on the ladder.

Essendon played an exciting brand of football in 2017, finishing with 12 wins to claim seventh spot on the ladder.

But while the Bombers were one of the best attacking sides in the competition, the team leaked the most points of any finals side.

Worsfold said the club could replicate its from results last year, but said that would slow its journey to becoming a premiership contender.

“You can revert back to some basic old stuff and maybe we could have won the same number of games this year if we just stuck with what we were doing last year,” Worsfold said on Tuesday.

“Or we can challenge ourselves that we’ve got to adjust and get better and become a great team and that’s what we’re working towards.

“Hopefully that happens this year and if that doesn’t happen this year the aim is that we’re going to be really close to that next year.”

The Bombers have suffered two disappointing losses since their stirring comeback win over Adelaide in round one, but Worsfold said he expects his players to fight back against Port Adelaide on Sunday.

“They’re a good young group of players that want to do their absolute best, so I’ve got no doubt they’ll be out giving it everything this week.

“What the result of that response is going to be is an unknown, we’re playing up against a pretty good team, but I’ve got no doubt the response will be working harder as a unit to play the way they want to play.”

Worsfold said adjusting team style and tactics successfully takes patience and trusting the new system to eventually bring rewards is important.

“We’ve worked all summer on playing a brand of footy we want to play and we’ve seen bits of it. We haven’t seen it 100% of the time and that’s what we’re building towards.

“We’re three weeks into the season and we’re learning all the time.

“This is about sticking at it, working through it, and there will be some teething problems.”

Essendon faces a hard task against the Power this weekend, but Worsfold said he is looking forward to seeing where his side sits in the league as they battle with the ladder-leading team.

“They’re a pretty well balanced team now,” Worsfold said.

“They’ve got a very good midfield, a star-studded forward line lining up and a backline that really defends strongly together, so overall we’ve just got to play our best footy and see how we measure up against them.”

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